As large-size displays of approximately 40 inches to 60 inches using a flat panel such as liquid crystal and plasma and a projector, so-called “interactive electronic whiteboard” products provided with a touch panel are available in the market. By connecting a personal computer (PC), these products can project an image displayed on the display unit of the PC, as an enlarged image. An interactive electronic whiteboard is used for presentations at conferences in companies and government agencies, and also in educational institutions.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a remote conference method of separately sharing stroke and an operation screen for the purpose of sharing the screen of a whiteboard with conference attendees at remote locations.
Furthermore, there is a “PC operation function via a touch panel”, in which a touch panel function provided in the interactive electronic whiteboard is used instead of operating a mouse, to directly touch a screen on which an image is projected and operate the PC displaying the screen. Furthermore, electronic blackboard application software that is operated in a connected PC is provided together with the above devices. This application software provides a “handwriting function via a touch panel”, such as a function of providing a screen acting as a blackboard and handwriting characters on the blackboard via a touch panel, and a function of acquiring a screen of a PC providing this application and superimposing handwritten characters on the screen.
By using an interactive electronic whiteboard having such a handwriting function, at a conference in an office, it is possible to directly write indicated items in a screen while operating displayed materials used for descriptions, and record the screen contents including the written in items according to need. As a result, when a conference ends, the screen contents can be immediately reviewed, and by reusing the screen contents, conclusions can be efficiently achieved.
Furthermore, in recent years, as networks are becoming high speed and cloud services are becoming popular, remote conferences are increasingly being held by using the above interactive electronic whiteboard. In these cases, by using existing remote conference software, the screen of a PC can be displayed on a display screen at a remote location, and the screen can be shared with attendees at the remote location. Accordingly, in addition to features of a conventional TV conference, items written onto a whiteboard and a projected screen of a PC can be shared with attendees at a remote location in a real-time manner. Thus, even though the conference is a remote conference, active discussions can be held like a face-to-face conference.
In a remote conference using an interactive electronic whiteboard having the above function, it is important to display the screen of a PC brought into the conference room on a display or by a projector; quickly display the image on a display screen at a remote location, and share the information in the screen with attendees at the remote location.
However, with the technology of Patent Document 1, it is difficult to simply and automatically share the PC brought into the conference room with attendees at a remote location without any preliminary preparations. Generally, in a remote conference using existing interactive electronic whiteboards, it is necessary to install exclusive-use software in the PC in advance, and connect both a USB (Universal Serial Bus) cable and a VGA (Video Graphics Array) cable. Therefore, it is very time-consuming to make this preparation. Furthermore, as the entire screen of the PC is shared, portions of the screen that do not need to be shared are shown in the display screen at the remote location.
These problems tend to arise when the interactive electronic whiteboard is used for educational purposes by a fixed person such as a teacher. When a stationary remote conference system is used, these problems may not arise as much. However, in a conference of a company, the conference room is used by different people every time. Furthermore, existing remote conference systems have not been able to address the needs of users who want to immediately start a conference with increased efficiency.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2009-230579